Stephanie Hendarta – Human rights observers have called on President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to step in to support a persecuted group of Shiites in East Java, and by so doing fulfill a promise made when accepting an international award for religious tolerance.
Andreas Harsono of Human Rights Watch on Monday urged the president to order East Java authorities to return evicted Shiite villagers from Sampang district on Madura Island to their homes, after refusing to allow them back since last August.
The group fled their village after violence experienced at the hands of a group of Sunnis in August 2012, but were subsequently compelled by local officials to remain refugees in at a sports center in Sampang, before last month being coerced to move to tenement blocks in Sidoarjo, on the East Java mainland, far from their own homes and livelihoods in Madura.
During the violence that led to the displacement of the nearly 200 Shiites, their homes were burned, one was wounded and another killed.
The Sunni-Shiite conflict in Sampang is just one of many recent attacks on religious minority groups in Indonesia, most of which are marked by inaction or outright discrimination on the part of law enforcers and local governments.
While receiving an award from the New York-based interfaith organization the Appeal of Conscience Foundation on May 30, Yudhoyono promised that his government would not tolerate acts of religious violence in Indonesia. Andreas said the time had come for Yudhoyono to put those words into action.
"Nothing significant has been done so far to deal with the Sunni-Shiite conflict in Sampang. SBY needs to fulfill the promises he made in New York, promises that there will be no more tolerance toward religious violence or discrimination," Andreas told the Jakarta Globe.
Existing legislation such as the 1965 Blasphemy Law act to hinder freedom of belief in Indonesia and have been used to criminalize atheists and adherents of non-mainstream religious sects such as Shiites and Ahmadis.
Violations of the law attract a punishment of up to five years in prison. Alexander Aan, a civil servant working in West Sumatra who admitted to atheism in an online posting on a social media website, was sentenced to two and a half years in prison last year.
Following Alexander's imprisonment, the International Humanist and Ethical Union commented "when 21st century technology collides with medieval blasphemy laws, it seems to be atheists who are getting hurt."
Former President Abdurrahman Wahid, himself a major religious figure, teamed up with nongovernmental organizations and individuals to file an ultimately unsuccessful constitutional challenge to the blasphemy law in 2010.
According to Ismail Hasani of the Setara Institute, an organization that monitors religious freedom in Indonesia, government figures are reluctant to uphold the rights of minority groups such as the Sampang Shiites because of a selfish fear for their own political fortunes.
"A long-term solution that can be enacted is to plant tolerance both in education and political orientation," Ismail said.
"There are many issues that are surfacing because national policies are giving room to intolerant groups. This won't go away until the public relearns tolerance. Without education, it'll be difficult because religious tolerance in Indonesia is an issue of social dynamics in a very diverse country."